Fresh mahula flowers were collected from the forests of Keonjhar district of Orissa, India, during March–April, 2008. The flowers
were brought to the Microbiology Laboratory of Central Tuber
Crops Research Institute, Bhubaneswar, washed in tap water to
get rid of dust and other debris and sun-dried in open for 7 days
to reduce the moisture content to 11%. The sun-dried flowers collected from various locations were mixed thoroughly before being
used for ethanol fermentation. The sun-dried flowers have the following compositions (expressed in g/100 g dry weight basis):
moisture, 11.0 ± 0.32; starch, 0.9 ± 0.007; total sugar (glucose, fructose, sucrose and maltose), 61 ± 0.34; crude protein, 6.5 ± 0.27;
crude fiber, 15.3 ± 0.5; total ash, 1.8 ± 0.31; undetermined solids,
3.5 ± 0.42. The pH of the mahula flower was measured in slurry
prepared with flower:water in 1:5 ratio.